Vehicle climate control systems in hybrid electric vehicles may be used to cool a vehicle battery as well as a vehicle cabin. As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,664 to Matsuno et al. discloses a vehicle battery cooling system for cooling a battery mounted in a vehicle whose vehicle compartment is air conditioned by an air conditioner. The system includes: a battery chamber for accommodating the battery; a cooling device having a cooling fan adapted to cool the battery by supplying air in the vehicle compartment to an interior of the battery chamber by the cooling fan; a cooling-air circulating device for circulating air used in cooling the battery between the battery chamber and the vehicle compartment by guiding the air into the vehicle compartment; an exhausting device for exhausting the air used in cooling the battery to outside the vehicle; a changeover device for effecting a changeover between the cooling-air circulating device and the exhausting device; a temperature detecting device for detecting at least one of a temperature of the interior of the battery chamber and a temperature of the battery; and a changeover controlling device for selecting the exhausting device by the changeover device when the temperature detected by the temperature detecting device has become greater than or equal to a predetermined value.